The first attempt of the English to effect any settlement in America, was
made by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who, in the month of June, 1578, obtained a
patent from Queen Elizabeth, authorizing him to plant a colony in that
country. Gilbert's project failed; but it was afterwards resumed by his
half-brother, the celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh, who, in 1584, obtained a
patent similar to that which had been granted to Gilbert, and next year
planted a colony at the mouth of the Roanoke, naming the country
_Virginia_ in honour of his royal mistress. But all these settlers, as
well as others who crossed the Atlantic during the next twenty years,
either perished by famine and disease, or by the hands of the Indians, or
returned to England.--_Cabinet Cyclopaedia_, vol. xiii.; _being_ vol. i.
_of the History of the Western World--United States of America_.
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